![\"\"](\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Michele-Donnelly-RS.jpg\")
<\/a>Assistant Professor of Sport Management Michele Donnelly.<\/p><\/div>\n
One of the big headlines during Tokyo 2020 has been the difference in requirements for men\u2019s and women\u2019s uniforms across various sports. Much of the dialogue is focused on how men often compete in shorts and looser clothing compared to women in bikinis or tight-fitting outfits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to expand the uniform regulations for women\u2019s sport to include options,\u201d says Donnelly. \u201cRequiring women to wear revealing, tight-fitting uniforms is reflective of outdated beliefs that no one would watch women\u2019s sport unless there was something else to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Female athletes are pushing back more than ever against unequal standards for uniforms they say are more revealing, sexualized and divert focus from their athletic ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf women athletes are saying \u2018my uniform is making me feel uncomfortable and distracted when I want to be focused on performance,\u2019 they should be allowed to have more options,\u201d Donnelly says, adding that the problem starts at the top, with a lack of women in top-level decision-making positions at the IOC and international sport federations.<\/p>\n
Arguments resisting changes to women\u2019s uniforms range from claims that judges need to see arms and legs to do their jobs, sand can be difficult to get out of one-piece bathing suits, performance can be inhibited or improved making the competition unequal, and more.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the men are wearing relatively loose-fitting board shorts and tank tops, why is there is no equivalent option for women?\u201d says Donnelly. \u201cOfficials continually resist change based on how it may interfere with women\u2019s performance when men are competing just fine. It reinforces discriminatory ideas about how women should look, including when they play sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
An example of both gender and racial disparity at the Tokyo Games was the rejection of the use of the British-made Soul Cap, an extra-large silicone covering designed specifically to protect dreadlocks, weaves, hair extensions, braids and thick and curly hair.<\/p>\n
In their decision, F\u00e9d\u00e9ration Internationale De Natation (FINA), which oversees international competitions in swimming, cited \u2018no previous instance in which swimmers needed caps of such size and configuration.\u2019 It also \u2018wondered if the cap could create an advantage by disrupting the flow of water.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rejection of the soul cap is yet another way racialized athletes, and particularly women, are being controlled by dominant ideologies,\u201d says Donnelly, who says the argument reminds her of when women were excluded from the elite sport competitions for wearing hijabs and men were asked to remove their turbans or yarmulkes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, we see Muslim women competing in athletics, beach volleyball and other sports wearing more modest uniforms with full sleeves and pant legs, as well as sport hijabs,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Donnelly is concerned that without change, younger athletes looking ahead and realizing the types of uniforms they may be expected to wear could be enough of a deterrent that they decide it\u2019s not worth it to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have no idea how many young women and even men we are losing because of significant inequalities in many of the events on the Olympic programme including uniforms, rules, equipment, race distances and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some sports have altered rules or implemented uniforms for women that are the same or equivalent as the men, there are still differences with how changes are handled amongst team versus individual sports and across different sports. In field hockey, for example, women are no longer required to wear skirts, but all team members must wear the same uniform. In Taekwondo all athletes, both men and women, wearing the same dobok (competition uniform)<\/em> and athletes debuting in skateboarding wore shorts, pants and polo shirts reflective of what they compete in at more established skateboarding events, such as the X Games.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so excited to see the skateboarding uniforms,\u201d says Donnelly. \u201cIt appears the women skaters were able to choose what they felt comfortable in. The IOC is pushing for youth spectators and more sports that attract younger viewers. It would have defeated the purpose to have them not look like skateboarders.\u201d<\/p>\n Embedded within the gender inequity problems at Tokyo 2020 are also gaps in the IOC portrayal guidelines, which Donnelly says are \u201ctoo soft and are presented only as guidelines as opposed to an official code of policies, rules and regulations for sport organizations and the media.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe IOC is in a position to say, \u2018here are the requirements and here are the consequences,\u2019 such as your camera operator can\u2019t get press credentials without appropriate training about how to film sports in a way that is appropriate. Or without an equal number of men and women athletes and events, your sport loses its spot on the Olympic programme,\u201d says Donnelly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The International Olympic Committee (IOC) continues to promote Tokyo 2020 as the most gender-equal Games ever. But Brock University Sport Management Assistant Professor Michele Donnelly says more needs to be done as \u201cmost changes the IOC has introduced are relatively superficial and performative.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":70144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,7,3319,1,5],"tags":[28,10595,299,1961,5505,8657,1848,8463,307,10596,3694,57,10597,10594,9493],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73516"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73519,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73516\/revisions\/73519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}